This research analyzes housing policies in the People's Republic of China in the following three ways. First, it describes the current state of Chinese housing and housing policies. Second, it explores how Chinese housing policies have been influenced by the country's political and economic development. Third, it develops theoretical and empirical models to examine factors affecting housing investment and consumption in a centrally planned economy. The results are used to compare Chinese housing behavior with that of other countries and to evaluate empirically the feasibility of major Chinese housing policies currently implemented.As the first attempt to deal with Chinese national housing policy in a broad perspective, the study combines socio-historical analysis and quantitative empirical methods. Socio-historical analysis includes a qualitative interpretation of changes in political ideology, priorities in economic planning, and urbanization level, and of their impact on Chinese housing policy. The socio-historical analysis and a social welfare maximization framework lead to a theoretical model of resource allocation for the housing sector. Empirical models are constructed to estimate elasticities for national housing investment and consumption. Data are drawn from major Chinese statistical sources, covering 1949 to 1987.The qualitative and empirical results indicate that Chinese housing investment and consumption have been influenced significantly by political ideology and national income. In particular, housing policy during the Cultural Revolution was characterized by an "anti-housing policy" that was greatly affected by radical ideology, sluggish economic growth, and a low level of urbanization. In contrast, influenced by the reform ideology as well as by rapid economic growth and urbanization, housing policy during the open door period has been predominantly "explicit." An application of the empirical results demonstrates that the housing construction plan of the Seventh-Five Year Plan to build 3,650 million square meters of housing is by no means feasible, even with the most optimistic assumptions about Chinese economic growth. It is also shown that the Yantai housing reform plan is being implemented without due attention to the economic laws governing housing consumption. Rent reform programs such as the Yantai experiment may trigger severe social conflict or political risk.